The present invention relates to a data management method for a presence server which has centralized management for the presence information of network users.
With the prevalence of IP networks, personal computers and information communication terminals in recent years, network systems supporting direct communication between individuals are being introduced increasingly. Especially, systems storing information on ever-changing status of individuals and devices as presence information and providing the stored presence information to a terminal accessing the system have recently been in practical use. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,127 discloses a mechanism for storing information on the statuses of telephone lines and providing information on usage status (busy condition) of a telephone line in response to an inquiry. The patent document explains the advantages of the mechanism in that a call center, etc. can avoid making calls to busy lines and can give customers (currently on the lines) calls after they finished the telephone conversation.
Meanwhile, in some instant message systems that communicate instant messages via a server computer, statuses of users of terminals are registered with the instant message server under certain prescribed conditions. The prescribed conditions include the start/finish of an instant message application installed in the terminal, the user's selection from a menu of the instant message application, etc. It is possible for each user to register with the server so as to permit the server to disclose his/her status information (registered with the server) to other users of the instant message system. Users allowed to receive the status information (hereinafter referred to as “watchers”) can watch the status information (stored in the server) of the user who permitted the information disclosure by use of the instant message applications installed in their terminals. Each watcher can use the received status information for judging whether it is possible to make contact with the user (who permitted the information disclosure) through the instant message system or other methods of communication.
The “watchers” are a group of users of the instant message system that have been designated by a registered user (user who has registered with the instant message server) as the access right holders of his/her status information. A record of the user group (watchers) registered with the instant message server by the function of the instant message server is called “watcher list”. Users registered with the watcher list can include not only the designated user group but also users living in a particular area, users who selected the same hobby category in menu registration of the instant message system, or all the users of the instant message system.
Meanwhile, a record of a frequently communicating user group (a group of users frequently communicating with a particular user) registered with the instant message server by the particular user for reference is called “buddy list”. The user can classify the users on the buddy list into “private groups” according to hobby, area, level of closeness, etc. for convenience and register the private groups with the server. The user can use the buddy list and the private groups for designating the destinations in the instant message application and other applications for audio communication, video telecommunication, e-mail, etc. The instant message application has recently become capable of detecting usage statuses of communication devices of the users, registering the device usage status information with the server, and disclosing the device usage status information to other users of the system similarly to the disclosure of the user status information.
Other than such simple status information of the users, personal information such as full name and hobby, multimedia information such as facial portrait, voice, music and video can also be registered with the instant message server directly or as links. Examples of terminals in which the instant message application can be installed in personal computers, cellular phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), etc. The instant message applications installed in the terminals establish connection with the instant message server computer by use of communications networks having various bandwidths and communication characteristics, such as wireless LANs, wired LANs, wireless packet networks and ISDNs (Integrated Services Digital Networks).
The users of the system can make access to the instant message server not only from fixed terminals but also from mobile terminals equipped with the instant message application even when away from home, on the road, in transit, etc.